Harry Potter and the Seat of Avalon
by LGreymark
Summary: After the siege of Atlantis new recruits are brought by the Daedalus to Atlantis, among them a married British couple. Lt. Colonel John Sheppard isn't quite sure what to make of Lieutenant Harry and Dr. Hermione Potter, but their inclusion into the Expedition came from on high which can only mean bad things... Harry/Hermione main pairing. MANY secondary pairings.
1. First Impressions

-Insert Huffy Disclaimer Here-

Preface to the text:

Don't even start. I can already hear the complaints; You've already got two stories on the go! You don't finish anything! Why are you writing crossover? What the hell is Stargate Atlantis?

Let's go back to front

-What is Stargate Atlantis?

Well if you were born before this decade you know what Stargate SG1 is. It's an epic sci fi tv series that pushed the boat on what could be shown on tv to a prime-time audience in terms of military hardware, action and eventually gore. Stargate Atlantis is the successor to that show. Five seasons and exactly 100 episodes (20 per season) of fresh, original storytelling that incorporated a new galaxy, a new cast and a new writing direction that (I believe) helped further the genre. It is without a doubt my favorite sci fi series, _period._

-Why are you writing crossover?

Because I want to.

You don't finish anything!

It's a personal flaw. You aren't paying me to write, so I'm under no obligation to finish any of the stories I put on this site. That being said, I do finish things. I'm _this_ close to finishing the development of a tabletop RPG that I have been solo building for the better part of a decade. I'm _this_ close to finishing a novel in the same universe to be launched with the published game. I _will_ finish the Deception series if it takes me another decade to get there. I'm a determined, stubborn and bitter asshole and I will finish that series despite the extreme dissatisfaction I have with the issues it harbors. I might end up rewriting it from scratch, but I will _finish_ it. Isaiah Strain was a departure from my usual writing style, and it shows. I'm writers blocked, it's that simple. I've got an eight-thousand-word document on my pc for the next chapter, but it's been rewritten something like seven times. However, I will also _finish_ that story. Besides, I've got another crossover project in the works. *wink*

-You've already got two stories on the go!

See above

Fair warning, jargon ahead

All that being said; I read a great deal of Keira Marcos' work. She has one of the best author voices I've seen in _any_ fictional work. Outside of literary classics and, my personal favorite series, the Malazan Books of the Fallen, written by Steven Erikson. Her work on several stories within the Stargate Atlantis fandom and one scene in particular (Which I cannot find now for the life of me, she is a prolific writer and the scene is buried in one of _many_ works) mentions how some of the IOA member states have shown concern over the Stargate program, I believe Britain was mentioned specifically and it sparked in my brain an idea of Britain being so frustrated with the situation in the Pegasus galaxy that they send Harry Fucking Potter out to deal with it. The story plot evolved from there and became something significantly different.

I use fanfiction as a testing ground for new writing styles, which is why all of my works on this site, even within the deception series, have a very different style and impact. This work is no different and you may notice changed dialogue structure, vocabulary and other changes from my previous works. The key thing to remember is I'm still human and without an editor the usual flaws in my writing still exist. I can't wrangle tenses to save myself, I often switch between Queen's English and American English for spelling based on how much effort I put into fighting my spellchecker (Armour is the correct spelling of the American Armor, but the spellcheck prefers Armor. Many words are like this). I habitually swap between points of view like a Schizophrenic with ADHD and my plot is convoluted like a snake tied in knots. For the military folks out there, or those pedantic about such things. I may abbreviate Lieutenant to Lt. in dialogue or other places. If it is followed by 'Colonel' assume the character says Lieutenant, if I simply leave it as Lt. Assume the character says, 'L T'. I often abbreviate it because writing Lieutenant is cumbersome as hell and I'm lazy, sue me.

Hopefully it's still enjoyable.

Without any further ado, may I present:

**Harry Potter and the Seat of Avalon**

-:-

Prologue: Seven Hundred Days

A loud screeching sound of metal on metal brought John back to consciousness with a jerk. He opened his eyes only to immediately close them again at the vicious light shining straight into them. He groaned, as he felt a hot flush of pain travel up his neck. It felt like a pinched nerve rather than bone, so he just breathed through it, gritting his teeth against the swell of heat. A cultured voice filled the room, speaking English without any kind of accent he was familiar with from Earth.

"Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard. We last parted ways under less that fortunate circumstances, I'm very glad to remake your acquaintance."

The voice was as familiar to John as it was unwelcome. The very identity of it told him all he needed to know about his situation. He managed to grind out a response through the pain still flooding the base of his skull.

"Kolya"

.

The man chuckled in an annoyingly pleasant fashion. John grimaced at the sound.

"I understand you go by a different title now; The… 'Legate of Avalon'. Impressive, but I have to confess I preferred the sound of Lieutenant Colonel. I'm sorry by the way, about the head wound. I hadn't intended for you to take an injury, but it really couldn't be avoided. You killed my best people on Atlantis during that storm John, these ones just… aren't as good."

A head wound. That would explain the hot flush. He cracked one eye open and held it despite the light shining straight at him. He made out Kolya's distinctive outline in the illumination as the man began to speak again.

"Usually I'd just have you shot. I kill my respected enemies you see. Torture is… distasteful but you have information I need. There's rumors you see, of a new power in the galaxy. A man who can destroy the wraith ships with just his mind. Rumor has it, Atlantis wasn't destroyed by the wraith. Rumor has it… Atlantis has a new _King_."

John's mind raced at the implications. Either they hadn't been as careful as they thought, or they had a leak. Kolya continued before John could make heads or tails of the situation.

"Fortunately for me John, I don't have to rely on rumors anymore. I have you. You're going to tell me all about it. Your new title, your new king. All of it." Kolya's voice as silky, and he knew the man enough to know that meant torture.

John wanted to spit at the man's feet, but he figured he'd need all the hydration he could get.

"Fuck off" He said with as much vehemence as he could muster.

Kolya chuckled. "I thought you'd say that. Tell you what, we won't start today, we'll give you some time to think. I'm in no rush. We've got all the time in the galaxy John. See, I happen to know something important about you. About that ring on your hand."

John clenched his left hand involuntarily, instinctively protecting the golden band on his finger from the other man's eyes.

"I happen to know that due to your new title, you and your wife don't need food or drink, you don't age, a form of immortality. Now I'm not sure I _believe_ it, if it is true however, I can leave you down here as long as I want, and you'll just be down here, alone. Let's start with a month, we can start more aggressive methods after that. See you soon _Legate_"

John hears a door open and close, and then the lights abruptly shut off. Not just the ones shining in his face, but all of them. It's pitch black and, despite his wishes to the contrary he can't move his hands or feet with them shackled firmly to the chair he's bound to. He twists, trying to see anything in the darkness but there is just… nothing. He doesn't know how big the room is or how long he has been missing from the city.

He can feel the chill of the room setting in already and twists again, trying to free himself but it is no use, he is bound too tightly. He pants from the exertion of trying to free himself and for the first time starts to regret the _gift_ he and his wife had been offered along with the honor that frankly he'd _earned_ being the Legate of Avalon. He'd discussed the possibility with her, that he or she would be captured. The kind of weakness, and conversely strength that the gift offered them. They couldn't be starved to death and could survive confinement indefinitely.

But now he was in that situation. Trapped, imprisoned, not only by an enemy of the crown, but by an enemy who apparently knew about his gift and could use it against him.

He flexes his toes and fingers, remembering the old exercises he developed in Afghanistan in the three-foot by three-foot _pit_ he'd been thrown into by the Afghans. He could be here for a long damn time. In the frigid dark of the what he could only assume was a cell John swore he would avenge himself of Kolya if it was the last thing he did. He didn't need to worry about betraying the crown. Even if he hadn't been given an incredible gift and honor by his _King_, he had far too much stubborn loyalty for such a betrayal. Revenge however, that was on the cards.

In the dark, John grinned.

-:-

Chapter one: First Impressions

John Sheppard's first impression of his new XO was deep discomfort. There was a bizarre aura the man had, it made it uncomfortable to even look at him for too long. He had the look in his eyes which marked him intimately familiar with death. He arrived with an SA-58 battle rifle checked in as his personal weapon. It looked like it had been recently resprayed in the standard SGC black, but John knew a solo operative's weapon when he saw one.

Aside from that the man had a jagged scar on his forehead that John couldn't for the life of him figure out the origin of. It was also distinctive as hell which told him that, whatever this man did, it wasn't undercover. The newcomer strode in the direction of Weir's office while the slim figure, of who John could only assume was the man's wife, walked towards him with confidence.

"Lt. Colonel John Sheppard."

Her voice was rich with culture but sharp and direct. She was wearing the Atlantis civilian personnel uniform without the usual discomforted grimace most of the scientists did and had tied her hair back at the nape of her neck in a braid. Her eyes were surveying him sharply and he cleared his throat, he wasn't usually so terrible about looking at another man's woman.

"Yes? Potter isn't it?"

She shot him a bright smile at that which made John intensely jealous of the man currently briefing Weir.

"Yes, that's right, pleased to meet you."

She extended him her hand with a businesslike attitude that saw him shaking it before he knew really what he was doing. He stumbled over his manners a bit.

"Uh, pleased to meet you, too. Do I need to be worried about what your husband is telling Elizabeth?"

Her bright expression turned wry as she shot a fond look through the glass walled office to her husband before turning back to him.

"Not even a bit, he'll be done soon and joining us. Do you mind assembling your team somewhere private where we can talk? We've been authorized to brief the four of you, and Carson Beckett, about some extra-mission particulars. We'll handle him in private however."

As ominous and potentially world ending sentences went that one was way up there, extra mission particulars? A frown settled on his forehead and he gestured her towards the conference room as he gestured to the various members of his team around the room. The military units under his command were still eyeing the man in Weir's office with a healthy amount of trepidation. More than one of them was white knuckling their weapons. He had a reputation then.

As the five of them filed into the conference room John noticed a slight haze fall over the walls and, almost without thinking about it, he'd drawn his weapon and aimed it at the woman. The telltale snap-buzz of Ronon's pistol joined it in readiness.

"The fuck are you doing?"

The woman seemed to be utterly unconcerned with the question from the alien or the threat and simply smiled benignly from where she was sat at the side of the table, which in John's experience meant nothing good.

"Put those away we're all friends here. I can't just have anyone listening into this conversation."

John knew exactly how his team mates would feel about that and he was no better. Barely lowering his weapon after sharing an incredulous look with Teyla and a wary one with Ronon. Rodney just looked excited and impatient and his voice had the characteristic jitter of barely suppressed frenetic joy as he spoke.

"You're clearly not an ancient. You and Lt. Potter have extensive records on Earth going back more than a decade. I had heard about you rising in the scientific community before we left. But the… whatever that was that you just sealed the room with is both similar and different to Ancient telekinesis and other powers we associate with them."

He pauses to take a breath, bright eyed but somewhat red in the face.

"What, are, you?"

"Oh honestly, I was warned you don't have any patience at all, but this is ridiculous."

Before the woman could say anymore, her hard-faced husband walked into the room, vaguely distorting whatever field Hermione Potter had placed over the room.

"Love you really need to try not to vex absolutely everyone you cross paths with." He eyeballed the rest of the group. Lieutenant Harry James Potter, SAS. Good to meet you all.

Hearing the man's voice for the first time put John aback somewhat. It was cultured and rich like his wife's, but had a wry edge that most soldiers did, rather than the hard-edged tones or the silky-smooth ones of a professional killer.

His wife flicked her hair over one shoulder, looking at him with a pout.

"Well really, this poor man can't keep himself straight for two minutes."

John interrupted before this could get completely out of control.

"As… fascinating as I'm sure listening to the both of you would probably be. Do you want to explain what the hell is going on?"

He took a moment to look around his team, Ronon had an expression on his face that was somewhere between tense and bored. It appeared vaguely constipated. Teyla had a reasonably intense look on, but that was nothing new. Rodney of course looked like he was about to wet himself.

Also, nothing new.

He looked back to his new Lieutenant and frowned at the expression on the man's face, which was more nervous than any man toting a rifle that big had any right to look. He swiped a hand through incredibly messy hair, it didn't do anything to help the state of his mop. But it was an interesting nervous tic.

"Tried this once just a few minutes ago with Weir, and that didn't go amazingly well. Secrecy is hard to find on secret military bases in other galaxies, who knew."

"Get to the point" John was privately glad Ronan had asked the question. Potter was built for war, an infantry war.

"Right, sorry. Bloody hell."

With a sharp flick of one wrist a thin wooden stick shot into the man's hand.

"This is a wand."

Before John could express his disbelief, the man had flicked the wand at a cup sitting innocently on the table.

It floated into the air without any sort of hesitation or decency at all.

"I'm a wizard. My wife is a witch."

Everything might have gone very, very pear shaped then. Ronan's hand snapped back up and his weapon buzzed back to life. John's own weapon was sighted on the man a moment later before his brain even caught up with what was going on.

"Oh, none of that now. If he wanted you all dead, you'd be dead."

The woman's voice was still light, not even a note of steel in it at all. She was a civilian, but John wondered if she'd seen combat like her husband. He slowly lowered his weapon, noting that Potter, the male one, had tensed and that… wand, was in a very deliberate stance that had all the hallmarks of a martial art, or something similar.

"Okay… You're a wizard and…" He turned to the woman "You're a witch."

She hummed by way of agreement and flicked out a much more elegant looking wand than her husband. It had quite detailed scrollwork and was light brown, compared to the dark brown, almost black, of her husband's wand.

"I even have a cauldron"

Her husband chuckled, "And I have a broom."

"Really" John stated incredulously

The man openly laughed then, it was a rough sound, raw and honest.

"Yes, I have a broom."

"Where do you even keep… you know what I don't need to know. Why are you telling us this? I get the impression you're very good at keeping it a secret."

"Because not only can I levitate cups, I can do this"

He tapped himself on the head with his wand and promptly vanished. John started slightly before grinning.

"Well isn't that handy"

The disembodied voice that replied was one of the spookiest things he'd ever dealt with, including the wraith.

"Very, and that's not all, I have abilities with a full suite of battle magic that can give me an incredible edge on the battlefield. But it's useless to me if no one else knows about it. I can't very well be casting spells about the battlefield freaking everyone out. You needed to know so that I won't be hindered when I'm in the field. As a neat side bonus, we've been informed that it's an offshoot of the ATA gene, which means we should be capable of operating ancient technology."

John breathed out a heavy sigh and glanced at Ronon as Potter became visible again, the look he received back spoke volumes. He'd finally found something that impressed the alien warrior.

"You can't tell the rest of the base staff?"

Doctor Potter entered the conversation again.

"Several experiments have been made by our people to expose magic to a wider community. Individuals and small groups, cherry picked to provide the best chance of success, fine. Large groups of people, crowds, cities, countries, etc. Doesn't end well. It would be a detriment to morale on the base if we were to reveal ourselves to the group at large."

"Right." John drew the word out to about six syllables, grasping the full extent of the situation.

"How many of you are there? Is anyone else on the base magical?"

Rodney's questions had become serious now, intense, as if he'd processed the events and was now attempting to extract as much information as he could. Doctor Potter's response however was contrastingly light and calm.

"There are about a hundred million of us across the world. We weren't informed by our contact on the IOA that anyone else here is magical. Frankly I'd be quite surprised if anyone was, magicals are an incredibly insular and bigoted society worldwide. The tiny proportion of magicals that are also scientifically proficient would find leaving the planet unpalatable. We were only contacted for this mission because of… my husband's unique experiences and relationship with both the magical and mundane, excuse me, normal, governments."

"So, no more secret badass wizards running around?"

"Or witches, no" Doctor Potter agreed

"Damn." Rodney sounded genuinely disappointed.

There was a pause while the Atlantis veterans absorbed that information. A thought struck John, so he posed the question.

"So, what are you doing here then? I can't imagine it's just to propagate magic through Pegasus."

The Lieutenant snorted.

"Hermione was tapped for a position on your science team, but they hesitated to send her an invitation because of me. Usually they don't select married folks for off-world work. When the SGC caught wind of your problem with the indigenous folk here. Wraith you call them?"

John nodded, listening attentively.

"Well I'm not just a wet work operative for the SAS, before Hermione and I severed ties with the magical world I was England's active warmage. Which means I was part of a team responsible for putting down magical threats to the world at large. I'm here to evaluate the threat of the Wraith to Earth, and Hermione's official job is to determine if they're a magical species, or just alien. If I determine reinforcements are needed for a full extermination Hermione and I will expend effort on a magical endeavor to create a magical means of transportation back to Earth so that my old team can come through to Terminate the Wraith"

"Terminating the Wraith? Have you got any idea how many there are?"

Rodney's indignant query echoed John's unspoken questions.

"Few hundred million, maybe a billion or two. They're a spacefaring civilization that doesn't set down roots on planets, choosing to instead conquer and raid for supplies. Much like the Mongols, Huns, Vikings of earth. Or, if you like, vampires."

"Vampires? Vampires exist?"

Doctor Potter nodded earnestly.

"Oh yes, there are a whole host of magical species, dragons, unicorns, manticores, vampires, werewolves. The whole lot really."

John let out a surprised huff and the male Potter capitalized on the pause in the conversation.

"So, yes, vampires. Used to be there were about a hundred and fifty thousand vampires in Europe. Back in two thousand and three, there was a huge upswell in their numbers and one of the larger covens had started to seriously recruit from the mundane population. They don't reproduce in the same way the wraith does. I understand the parasites in this galaxy reproduce with eggs. Regardless they had become a serious threat to the average person. So, I and four other warmages were tasked with culling the population, reducing them back to the tolerable levels the ICW charter allowed them to remain at."

John and Ronon both blinked at the numbers at play.

"Five of you?"

Potter shrugged, "It's a talent, anyway, over the course of the next year and a half we used surgical strikes on coven leaders to destabilize the relatively brainless foot soldiers and then use airborne toxins to slaughter them wholesale. By January of this year we cut their population down to only eleven thousand."

John shared a look with Ronon and saw the same incredulous disbelief mirrored in the other man's eyes. Almost involuntarily he looked at Potter's wife and the woman met his stare evenly.

"I'm not ashamed of my husband's war record Lt. Colonel, he was righteous and just in how he dealt with those monsters. I developed the magical toxin he used to wipe them out."

Rodney let out a bizarre kind of squeaking sound and the other three men in the room looked at him oddly. John looked back to the soldier.

"It was a war then?"

Potter shrugged; "Of a sort, they waged war on the innocent people of Europe, mostly non-magical folk like you. So, we took the war to them and won, with the minimum of effort required to do so."

His gaze hardened a little and Sheppard wondered if the man had ambition, "Please understand sir, I'm here nominally under your command. But my contact in the IOA made it clear that my primary objective was the complete reduction of the wraith presence in this galaxy to a non-threat status. I've been authorized to dispense WMD levels of sorcery if needed to achieve this objective."

"What does that entail?"

The man coughed in what John could only imagine was discomfort because his wife sent him a sympathetic look and answered for him.

"It is well within my husband's ability to create a madness within a hive via direct contact with a drone which will incite infighting between that hive and another. If you can get him into contact with the drones of each hive, we estimate we can have the wraith wiped out within two years."

John looked at Ronon again, then at Teyla, both of them had a sort of ravenous hunger in their eyes that John had never seen before. He supposed it was a product of being raised in a galaxy dominated by the wraith. For the first time Teyla spoke up.

"You can do this? You are certain?"

Potter inclined his head to her in a solemn fashion.

"Yes ma'am"

"Potter"

John was a little taken aback by Ronon's tone. It was a tone the Satedan usually reserved for him, it was respect.

The tall Englishman turned to the Satedan and looked him in the eye, Ronon walked forwards a couple of paces and held out one arm in the universal gesture. Potter stepped to meet him and clasped their forearms together in a motion that was as familiar to the man as breathing.

He wouldn't know it for a few years, but John had just seen the beginnings of a friendship, one that would heal a deep wound for both men.

-:-

The door to Carson Beckett's lab opened with the same rumbling hiss that it always did, but the aura of power that walked through the door brought back memories he never knew he'd have to bring up again. Without turning to the newcomers, he greeted them.

"Good morning Lt. Potter, Doctor Potter. If you could just sit over there on the beds, I'll be with you in a minute."

The fact that both sets of footsteps stopped abruptly made him smile to himself before turning around to greet them properly.

"Well off you go, I've got to get this report written before lunch and I wasn't expecting you until after dinner."

The two shared a look and Carson chuckled as he turned back around to the pad, finishing his work quickly before facing the two newest members of the expedition once again.

"Right, let's get this out of the way first. I know who the two of you are. You went to school with my boy."

The two glanced at each other, bemused, before Hermione responded.

"Neither of us remember a Beckett in our classes at Sapienza Mr. Beckett."

He chuckled again at their looks.

"Ah lass no, not in Rome, the son you went to school with was Seamus Finnigan, you went to Hogwarts with him."

Harry looked at the man with a sharper gaze and Carson felt the abrupt urge to look down but resisted it.

"The difference in last names?"

Carson sighed and sat in his office chair, looking up at them with a frown.

"He took his mother's name while in the wizarding world. Easier for him to move around with the legacy of a magical family backing him up. He's still Seamus Beckett in the regular world, just like his older brother Fergus. His mother died during the war and… well I couldn't bear to stay. My boys are both grown men, they move about the world with purpose and I keep a track of them. But they don't need me fouling up their lives."

He clears his throat abruptly, feeling a sting start to build behind his eyes and angrily brushing it away.

"Anyway, that's how I know who the two of you are, and I must say, thank you for all you did. Both of you."

The two look a little gob smacked but nod at him, Harry recovers first and flicks a document into his hands from out of thin air. It made him smile wistfully at memories of a happier time. Beckett takes the document with one hand which sagged a little at the unexpected weight of it. It was rather heavier than it looked.

"Lad, what have you got for me here?"

"Those are our medical records Dr Beckett; you should have our mundane records in a separate file. Truth be told our folk don't get any mundane illnesses, which I'm sure you know already. But we don't know how the diseases of this galaxy will affect us, as many of them seem tailored specifically to attack the ATA gene, which we seem to have, or at least our magic mimics it."

That brought him up short.

"Are you telling me lad that you have the ATA gene? Is it a function of your magical genes or do you both have the ATA as well by coincidence?"

Doctor Potter answered him rather than the Lieutenant, which he figured was about right going on what he'd heard of them from his son's telling of it.

"We're unsure Dr. Beckett, we've not had a full suite of genetic testing, we found out when some of the ancient tech at the SGC woke up for us."

His hands were trembling as he placed them flat on the table, suddenly awash with ideas and thoughts.

"Do you mind, the two of you, if I do a workup and see what I can find? If magicals as a whole can operate ancient technology, we might have overlooked a vast asset the SGC could utilize for the expedition."

Hermione bites her lip and glances at her husband who has a hard look on his face that makes Carson gulp. Suddenly reminded of the vast list of accomplishments this man has under his belt, not least of which the kill count. After several moments of silence as the man sizes him up with a calculating stare. Eventually the other man nods and Beckett lets out a relieved breath.

"Well then, I'll need some blood from both of you, and I know how important that is for the both of you, but I need you to remember that you're the only two magicals on the base. No one here can abuse your trust with your blood in a magical way, and I will keep it locked up in my office at all times. No one will ever know that I have it."

The two share another look and they move at the same time; Hermione moving her hand towards her husband's wrist, a collection vial materializing in her grip just in time for it to catch a stream of crimson fluid running from a cut in the crook of Harry's arm where a utilitarian silver knife is pressed against the skin. She caps it with a dainty flick of one wrist before floating it over to Carson who collects it from the air without thinking. The male Potter then presses the knife carefully to his wife's arm even as his own cut closes under her magical ministration. She catches the stream of her own blood with another vial and floats it over to the desk as Harry seals her wound for her. The skin knitting back together just like his own had. The two locked eyes during the entire process.

A little taken aback by the intimacy and synchronicity of the moment Carson stands and immediately locks both vials in a secure cabinet, unlabeled, and turns back to the two who're focused on him like hawks.

"Is there anything else you two?"

Harry stood from his seat and helped his wife down to the floor. "No Dr. Beckett, you've been very accommodating. Should we set a date now for checkups?"

Carson shook his head.

"No, no, I take it you both have your magical needs well in hand. You've been away from that world long enough I figure you've sorted things on a personal level."

Both Potters gave him a nod.

"Then only after each time you go through the gate. We'll go from there if anything crops up."

Hermione smiled warmly at him.

"Thank you, Dr. Beckett."

He smiled back at her, utterly unable to resist. The dry voice of the male Potter made him chuckle.

"Keep your Scottishness to yourself Beckett. I'll end you."

The amusement buried in the pseudo threat, perhaps borne from Dr. Potter's halfhearted slap of the man's arm, was so reminiscent of days past he couldn't help turning the same smile on the other man.

"I'm glad I met the both of you, let me look through these notes you've given me before I get back to you about it. I'll give you a call on the radio in a couple of days when I know more."

-:-

The repeated cracking thuds of the man's battle-rifle from the east pier set Rodney's teeth on edge. It wasn't the sound of gunfire on its own. Plenty of the airmen and marines practiced on the piers in open air, but they all had P90's and they all did so in a sporadic hobbyist fashion. When they wanted to train, they did so indoors. Potter was simply… relentless. He was there every morning, every night, shooting targets he'd had the engineering team set up.

The military personnel on the city were all SGC, so they all operated in familiar ways that Rodney was accustomed to, even John who'd been force recon before now. But Potter was an entirely different beast. It'd taken minutes for Rodney to get access to the man's file through the central server. Sheppard had been given a copy as part of military procedure and it made for grim reading. Years of wet work and black operations and that was just on _their_ side of the divide.

So, when Rodney heard the man fire round after round out over the water in a relentless cadence, he knew Potter was the kind of person who could do that to a man without a second thought. He'd seen a similar nature in Sheppard, but not to the same extent. The military commander of the city still had a first instinct not to pull the trigger. Ronon was a little different, the man was ruthless and brutal, but only with the wraith, or those threatening anyone he cared about. Rodney suspected Potter wouldn't flinch when dealing with anyone in his sights. It chilled him to realize that, despite having military on the city, they'd never had a _killer_ before.

It chilled him right to the bone.

How could the man be so cold when the wife was so warm?

"Rodney, explain this line of ancient to me I haven't quite caught up with the language yet."

The physicist turned to Hermione Potter who was poring over a diagram of a Jumper. As far as Rodney could tell the woman was a true English rose. Beautiful and elegant in ways no American (or Canadian) woman could hope to match. She glanced at him with eyes bright with the excitement of academic endeavor and he felt his throat close up.

He had a crush.

Fuck.

-:-

"Specialist Dex"

Ronon caught the arm of the airman he was fighting in a lock and threw the man to the ground, pinning him, before turning to look at Potter who had just walked in the door. The man was wearing shin length trousers of a kind Ronon had never seen before, made of a kind of supple leather, and a close-fitting sleeveless vest of similar material, but harder.

The Satedan moved over to the man and locked forearms with him. They shared a brief moment of silence before Ronon answered.

"You're late."

Potter chuckled and Ronon watched the man's eyes, he'd known a lot of soldiers, and runners, over the years. He'd never known a soldier who could laugh without his eyes lighting up with the grim humor of it.

Except for Ronon himself.

They separated and Potter answered the accusation.

"How can I be late if we'd never agreed to meet?"

Ronon scoffs, "Ah, we were always going to meet for this Potter. You're a fighter, I'm a fighter. We need to size each other up."

The Satedan swaggers over to the other end of the mats while the marines and airmen form a ring around the pair, bets flying fast. Ronon is a veritable war machine, built for battle by near endless years of running and fighting. Potter on the other hand has been a soldier since he was a child, barely into his teens. It shows in the easy grace with which he moves, where Ronon is like a berserker, all explosive energy and violence. Potter is comparable to an assassin, restrained power and grace.

Ronon tenses briefly before launching forwards with an explosive punch to the man's solar plexus. He was fast, incredibly fast and he knew it. He figured the man would have time to block or parry the strike. But not slide out of the way completely. He had a brief instant of warning before Potter's punch struck him under the armpit and pain stabbed into his body like a knife. He staggered backwards one hand coming up to ward off a follow up blow but there was none. He let out a sound like a wounded animal as his arm went limp, spasming as if the nerves had been severed.

Potter looked calm as he circled Ronon and he realized he'd made a mistake. He'd treated Potter like another one of the marines, fast and skilled, but not _deadly._ This wasn't a man who had been trained to fight, but to kill. Ronon shook his arm out, slowly regaining feeling. He moved in again and launched a combination strike, light and probing to see where the man's defenses lay. Potter stepped backwards out of the way, swaying around the strikes like a snake before returning with his own combination. Three jabs that looked as light as feathers with their speed and ease, but each one struck Ronon before he could react, one hammering into an extended inner elbow. Another into his kidneys, just below the ribs, and another into the same point he had struck before. Abruptly Ronon's entire right side above the waist went numb and he grunted with the pain of it. Sheppard fought like this, merciless and brutal, aiming to disable and eliminate instead of wounding or humiliating.

But Sheppard was not this fast.

Ronon stepped backwards, shaking out that arm again and it slowly regained warmth. But the pain still blossomed across his chest like fire.

"You hit like a fucking horse Potter."

"I was trained to hit like a horse Specialist Dex."

"After you've hit me like that, call me Ronon."

"Harry then."

They circled again and Ronon moved forwards the same way, launching a combination but feinting on the last blow, staggering the timing just enough that as Potter began to naturally sway into a striking position his shoulder moved into the path of the punch. The stockier man's eyes narrowed as the blow connected and, instead of moving with the punch like most fighters, deadening the blow. Potter moved through it and Ronon had never felt the like, it was like striking a brick wall. He felt his knuckles crunch, but it wasn't against bone, the skin didn't even flex under the impact. The return blow from the other man hit him hard in the other kidney and he knew he'd be pissing blood for a while as he crumpled backwards, all the fight gone out of him as fire flooded up through his chest. Gasping for breath he lay on the mat and groaned out the pain.

"Fuck Potter this is _sparring_."

He saw the man frown, then grin.

"I'll just have to toughen you up. Right, let's get you to Beckett"

Ronon grinned in return and laughed, ignoring the blossom of pain from the action. Potter laughed with him as he helped him up. Ronon did note one thing though.

Potter's eyes didn't laugh.

-:-

"Teyla, could I have a moment?"

Teyla Emmagan turned on the spot and smiled warmly at Hermione Potter as the British woman walked towards her.

"Doctor Potter, of course. I was just about to take tea; would you join me?"

The other woman smiled at her with such earnest warmth that Teyla couldn't help but let that warm smile transform into a grin.

"Teyla, I could drink tea all day long. Of course, I'll join you. And please, call me Hermione."

Telya observed the younger woman as they settled around a table on the balcony of her rooms, overlooking the North pier. Hermione takes a sip of the tea and frowns prettily at it.

"It's not quite Ceylon, but the taste is quite lovely. Where does it come from?"

Teyla ducks her head, unexpectedly warmed by the unintended compliment.

"It's a blend I've been working on for many years. It uses certain herbs found all over the galaxy, I've been able to source most of them on the mainland."

Even she finishes talking, reliable as the dawn, shots begin to echo out from the east pier. Teyla cuts a look to Doctor Potter only to see the woman with a sad wistful look on her face. Teyla reaches out and cups the woman's hand gently.

"Your husband, he is a hard man, but he wasn't always. How long has he been this way?"

Hermione's hands tremble, but Teyla can't tell what emotion is behind it. The woman's face is blank, and one hand returns the ceramic teacup to the table. Her voice is cold as she speaks, a far cry from the enthusiastic warmth she usually portrays.

"You have no idea what you're talking about."

Teyla couldn't see the woman's eyes, turned to the pier as she was, and she suddenly felt out of her depth with the young woman. She stumbled over her words as they came out in a rush.

"When Ronon got here, at first he was like Lt. Potter. Distant, rough around the edges, but he opened up to us a bit more maybe a month ago. We've been seeing more and more of the man he might have been on Sateda coming out. Lt. Potter used to have a warmth about him as well, I'm sure a lovely young woman like you wouldn't love him otherwise."

The paired rings on Hermione's finger rattled against the metal table with her trembling. Her voice was filled with a raw emotion filtered through the cold facade.

"He came here to commit a genocide Teyla. I was tapped for this mission because of my science. But when the IOA figured out who I was they bypassed me and went straight for my husband."

She stopped, taking a shaky breath and Teyla squeezed her hand gently. Hermione smiled warmly at her and Teyla realized with a spike of understanding the truth of the situation.

"Harry is an expert at what he does Teyla. The magical world, our home, pushed him out because after the war… after what Harry did. They couldn't bear to look at him. I mentioned his war record, but I think none of you realize that Harry has been at war since he was fourteen years old. Almost half his life now, he's killed more men and women than I've ever met. Never mind the creatures he's destroyed. The war broke my husband. I hardly ever see the boy I fell in love with anymore, fortunately I love the man just as much as I loved the boy."

Hermione looks straight at Teyla with eyes so sharp Teyla feels like her soul is being measured and weighed.

"My husband does not mistreat me Teyla. He loves me with his whole being, I am his shelter from the world, and he is my guardian from the same. I'll thank you never to make that mistake again."

Stricken Teyla squeezes the younger woman's hand again and apologizes with an earnest tone.

"I'm sorry Dr. Potter, Hermione. I never meant… men in this galaxy are loud and, except when in battle, joyful. Even the men from your world, while disciplined, show warmth. Your husband…"

"Is cold."

The voice that came from the young woman was now understanding and Teyla let out a heavy breath of relief. She takes a sip of the tea, still warm, and eyes the woman with a relaxed air as Hermione seems to deflate, her hands going to her lap.

"My husband and I lead largely separate lives now, professionally at any rate, but it wasn't always like that. Before we left the wizarding world we were joined at the hip, I've known him since I was eleven years old. He's saved my life at least once for every year I've been alive. We've shared… we've shared most of our lives together Teyla. He's not just my husband, he's my best friend. Has been since before I knew how important such things were. There's been, since I knew him, people who tried to demonize him, paint him as the next terror of the world. Because of his power, war record, his will."

Teyla frowned at that and couldn't help but interrupt.

"His power?"

The younger woman laughs and it's like a veil is lifted off her. Instead of the thirty something professional woman she normally appears to be, she seems in that moment to barely be out of her teens such youth flows from her expression.

"I forget sometimes how different it is talking to mundanes. You have no concept of the people walking among you sometimes."

Teyla sits back at that and Hermione's face falls to contrition.

"I'm sorry, that sounded dreadful. I only mean that it's refreshing not to have you already assume to know everything about my husband and me. We're, unfortunately, rather famous in our world."

Teyla smiles and inclines her head. Hermione nods along at the prompting.

"We're not all made equal, witches and wizards. Power ebbs and flows through bloodlines and various astrological events. My Harry was born under an auspicious moon, to two incredibly powerful parents. His father the most powerful son of an ancient line, his mother a powerful witch born to two mundanes; A first-generation witch of uncommon skill. As a result, well, my Harry could crack the planet in two."

Frankly Teyla was a little stunned, not even in the oldest histories of the ancestors was such power mentioned. She knew such things were alien to the… mundane, folk who had come from Earth. They would have leveraged such power already to defeat the wraith. She had to know;

"Why are you telling me this?"

Hermione huffed a bit and looked out over the bay; her eyes hooded.

"There's scarce few women on this expedition. Maybe thirty out of the hundred something expedition members. Half of those are military, the rest are scientists. Frankly Teyla I can't stand scientists. Dr. McKay, perfect example, I've been on the city for all of ten minutes and he's already developed a crush on me."

She threw up her hands in disgust and Teyla couldn't help but smile. The two magicals had been on the city for over a week now, acclimating and, for Harry, training with the SGC airmen and the Marines on loan from the Navy, but it was clear they hadn't truly settled in yet.

"You miss someone from Earth."

"We had some friends who followed us out of England, that's the country where we lived. Harry's best man, who stood up with him at our wedding, he died in the war, and another friend of ours who, well he wasn't a friend in the end at all. But there were two other witches who followed us from England, sweet Luna Lovegood" Hermione took a shuddery breath, "And Ginny Weasley, the most belligerent woman I think I've ever met. They were my friends, Luna followed me into science, but couldn't stick with it, too many rules for her carefree mind. She ended up spending most of her time writing, she followed Harry's battalion around as a war reporter, showing people the good he was doing, the people and villages he and they saved. Ginny… She joined the military with Harry. Said he needed a friend in the service who _knew_."

She took a breath and turned back towards the table, waving her hand over the cup of tea absently and steam began to rise from its surface. Teyla found magic (or sorcery as Hermione's husband most often called it), absolutely baffling. It seemed to have no rules or restrictions at all, just imagination and power. Both fascinating and terrifying really.

"Anyway, once Harry started wet work they couldn't follow. Luna because no one knew where Harry was operating and, really, he wasn't doing much obvious good anymore, just… _killing_."

There was genuine distaste in the young woman's voice now and Teyla wondered how the discussion between them had gone when Harry changed professions.

"And Ginny couldn't bring herself to do that kind of work. Said she didn't have the same steel that Harry did. So, they both joined me in Rome, that's a city in another country on Earth named Italy. They both did magical research with me on weekends, of course I worked in my lab during the week and Ginny became private security for the holdings group that provided funding for my research. Luna just… well she became something of a therapist for all of us, but mostly Harry. He needed it more and more as time went by."

Hermione trailed off and took a sip of her still steaming coffee, making a soft sound of appreciation at the taste. Teyla gave her a moment, they'd all underestimated this soft-spoken bright-eyed scientist. There was steel under the light exterior. Eventually the Earth woman finished her thought.

"Those two. We both miss them like lost limbs."

Teyla still felt a little lost. She was used to dealing with Rodney who spouted words like bullets from a P90, but always on target. Hermione's chatter was somewhat more rambling, and they had strayed far from the initial topic. Fortunately, it seemed Hermione had also realized they had rambled somewhat.

"Point being, we've come here to the other side of… well the universe really. To prosecute a war. We left our only friends behind; we couldn't even really tell them where we were going. Leaving Luna behind especially has been hard for him. She had a way of understanding him and putting things in perspective that I've never been able to do. I love him, and he's my best friend, but sometimes his moods are impossible to pierce. That's why he can seem cold, he doesn't want to burden new friends with his troubles."

The younger woman put her cup down and Teyla heard the earthenware rattle as she did so, the young woman's hands were trembling again. She lets the moment stretch, unwilling to drag Hermione from her thoughts. They simply sit in silence for what feels like an hour but can't have been more than ten minutes or so. Eventually she gently asks.

"I can't imagine you sought me out for this Hermione. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

The young woman laughed gaily, and it was such an abrupt joyful sound that Teyla couldn't help but smile in a bit of mirth herself. Hermione's voice was of a quality Teyla had never encountered, but warm and serious while having a light tone that spoke of genuine happiness.

"Here's me pouring out my woes. You have quite a way about you Teyla that I should feel so comfortable." She hummed to herself merrily. "Maybe it's the tea. No, I came to ask if you wouldn't mind talking to me about your people. I'm trying to learn about whether the Ancients were actually magic users, or if it's an entirely different genetic mutation. I'm starting with histories of as many of the peoples of this galaxy as I can assemble."

Teyla thought for a moment before giving a slight nod, and began to speak;

"It's something you'll note often with the peoples of this galaxy. I understand your people measure time from a fixed point in your history, we measure ours from the last culling. It is such a dominant part of our culture that all things surround it…"

-:-

"Dr McKay, could I have a word?"

Rodney jumped violently at the sound of Lt. Potter's voice; the man was as quiet as a snake. He whipped about to see the younger man standing in the entrance to Rodney's lab, a curious expression on his face. Stuttering a bit Rodney replies to the intimidating man.

"Yes, yes of course, if you'd just, give me one second."

"Dr McKay. Is something wrong?"

The asshole's voice was 'amused' as though he found Rodney's, admittedly obvious, nerves _funny_. Vaguely fuming, and moving at supersonic speeds towards furious, he turned back towards the man standing in the doorway only to abruptly remember why he was _petrified_ of this man. "No, no trouble at all. I'll just be a moment."

His hands flickered across the keyboard in rapid movements, quickly setting off another round of simulations relating to the power output of the generators of the city. When he was done, he turned back towards the Brit still standing in the doorway and gestured brusquely inside.

"Well do come in. What did you…? Well that's to say what can I do to help?"

Potter strolled inside with the same kind of caged energy that Sheppard always had. As if he was always half a step from launching into some kind of attack or evasion. The big difference between them, if Rodney was forced to note one, was that where John somehow managed to look casual at the same time as lethal. Potter just looked lethal.

"I've got many, _many_ questions about the Stargate. They didn't have time to brief us extensively at Cheyenne mountain so I'm rather under-informed at the moment." Potter says in that infuriatingly well cultured voice. It was hard to hate someone with a voice like that.

Wait… Hate? Where had that come from?

"Um yes, I mean, of course. Yes. What do you want to know?" He cursed his nerves.

Potter shot him an odd look before answering.

"Specifically, I was curious about the whether Stargate command, or you folks here on the city have used game theory to model attack patterns the wraith take through the gate and where they're likely to strike next. More specifically, can we chart a course to prevent their taking action by striking specific TCT's?"

A little taken aback by the man's line of questioning, Rodney floundered for a second as he looked for an appropriate response.

"Don't you want to, you know, know about how it works?"

Potter's expression was stuck somewhere between impatient and understanding. "The gate? I know full well how it works. My people have devices similar to this we use for everyday travel. The Stargate is just a scientific version of the same thing with a lot more power."

"Huh" That was about as elegant as Rodney thought he could be at that moment; he was used to the marines and airmen being baffled by the Stargate. Some of them had to understand how it worked, at least at a surface level, before they could put aside the instinct that told them it was _wrong_. After a moment of thought Rodney focused on the man's actual question.

"Well, sort of. The biggest problem is we have _very_ little idea how they pick their targets. Some planets get culled, that's the term the natives of this galaxy use for being attacked, on a regular basis, only to go for long periods of time with no activity from the wraith. Others have extremely sporadic and random contact, going centuries, or only months, without contact."

Potter nods thoughtfully and leans back on the chair, hitching one ankle up on his other knee. "Is there any chance of tracking the activity of a single hive to determine their attack locations? I understand your people here don't have the resources to stop every attack. But could we ambush one and plant a tracker?"

Wagging one finger at the man Rodney moves over to a shelf and collects one of the ancient doodads he has stashed there. "This is the best we've got. We can get decent range out of them with subspace communication. But decent range out here is about ten systems. If they head through a gate, ninety percent of the galaxy is out of range of the best thing the ancients could put together. It's just not practical."

Potter grins, it's a jovial expression and for once Rodney can't detect anything deeper in the man's face, it's just genuine joy.

"Oh, Hermione will be furious."

Rodney splutters, all his previous misgivings suddenly flooding back even as the other man begins to chuckle.

"Why will, Hermione, be furious?" His voice was almost a squeak. Potter's chuckles rumble to a stop and he fixes Rodney with another odd look. After a moment the man's face clears again and he shrugs.

"She hates divination."

Somehow Rodney knows he's going to be asking these people more questions than the other way around. It's a bizarre situation for him. He also has the sneaking suspicion he judged the other man far too hastily, and a bead of guilt wells up in his throat at the rather inappropriate crush he is harbouring for the man's wife.

-:-

"Doc"

The softly spoken word about two feet away from Hermione made her start and turn sharply, hand palming her wand, in the direction of whoever was foolish enough to sneak up on her. She huffed in shock at the sight of Ronon Dex standing there looking equal parts sheepish and amused.

"I didn't mean to spook you."

The man was quite beautiful in an alien way, she saw in him the same things she saw in Harry; loss, strength, loneliness, loyalty, courage. She always wondered if _she_ didn't have a saving people thing with how she longed to protect Harry from everything that ailed him. With Ronon she automatically felt the beginnings of similar protective feelings for the man who was rapidly becoming Harry's best friend on the base.

"That's quite alright Mr. Dex. I don't think we've actually formally met." She held out one hand smiling warmly at him. "Doctor Hermione Potter. Wife, Witch, Researcher. In that order."

Ronon grins as he takes her hand, "Ronon Dex. Wraith Killer… That's it." His grin has a roguish quality that reminds her of Fred and George.

"Well as I understand it that skill is at a premium around here. What can I do for you Mr. Dex?"

Ronon grimaces at bit at that and waves a hand at her as he moves around her lab confidently. Though she notes he doesn't touch a thing. "Call me Ronon. Mr. Dex was my father." He spins a bit and leans against the wall, the frown still in place.

"He's lucky to have you." Ronon said gruffly. It was as good a stalling tactic as ever she'd seen, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"He knows and I do appreciate social visits Ronon, but I really am quite busy settling in. Is there something I can help you with?" She asked with a stern tone softened by concern.

The frown deepens on his face, lines creasing in patterns that she can see are familiar to his skin. "I lost my wife when the Wraith culled Sateda, my home world. It's good that Potter has you. I've barely met him, but I can tell: He wouldn't be who he is today without you Doc."

Hermione felt her breath catch in her throat. "Thank you Ronon. Was there anything else?"

The tall man shook his head, looking a little bemused.

"Then go away before you make me cry you wretched man." Hermione said crossly with a hint of humor. Ronon nodded at her with a grin as he walked away. Huffing she leant against her table as her husband greeted Ronon outside. She called out into the hallway "He nearly made me cry!" She tried to stay crossed but ruined it by laughing and she heard Harry laugh as well.

"Come on in then and let's see what the matter is. I don't want to have to kick your arse _again_ I'm more scared of Beckett than anyone else in this base."

Ronon laughed as well, a deep booming sound that seemed to echo up from beneath his diaphragm. Harry entered the room first, moving straight to her for a gentle kiss as Ronon followed him in. Hermione blushed at the knowing look the alien gave her and she glanced back at Harry who was grinning madly. "The people of his world don't… didn't, hell. Sorry." Harry shot Ronon an apologetic look, but the bigger man waved him off genially. "Right, they didn't have the same hang-ups about public affection as people from ours. So, I can kiss you as much as I want in front of him and he won't care."

Her blush only deepened but she shot Ronon an amused look. "I bet he just likes to watch." He can only nod earnestly at that and Hermione breaks out laughing as she presses herself against her husband's chest and buries her face in his neck. She can feel the rhythmic vibrations of Harry's chest as he chuckles with her. Eventually he lifts her up and sits her on the table before leaning against it and looking back towards his new friend.

"How many people does the Colonel have under his command out here?" Harry asks with a frown.

Ronon shrugs. "Over thirty, but not much more than that, thirty-three, I think. I understand there were more when they first got here but there's been casualties. He's apparently getting fifty more from Earth, but I haven't seen them get here yet. Sheppard figures they'll trickle in over the next few months as the Daedalus goes back and forth between Pegasus and your galaxy."

"So about eighty then. They'll probably push it to a full company if they can get away with it. What about the Genii?"

The bigger man frowns. "Hard to tell. Their whole population might be militarized. They've got an aggressive military commander, and their culture is militaristic. Could be thousands."

Now also frowning Harry shoots a sideways glance at his wife. "Not like we haven't been outnumbered before."

She gripped his shoulder with a reassuring hand. "It certainly isn't. You need a force multiplier love."

Ronon tilted his head in curiosity "What the hell is a force multiplier?"

"It's something that increases the effective value of each individual member of a military force. It could be body armour, weapons." He flicks his wand out before flicking it back into its hidden holster. "Magic"

Ronon looks thoughtful. "Have you seen the pea shooters the marines have?"

Harry nods, grimacing, "P90's, they're… I have to assume the manufacturer signed a pretty lucrative deal with the SGC a long time ago." He looks at the weapon at Ronon's hip. "That thing pack a punch?"

The return grin is almost feral from the alien warrior. "Yeah"

-:-

John cut a look at the woman standing next to him as Potter and Ronon blasted downrange with their firearms. The echoing thud of the British man's battle rifle in stark contrast to the buzzing discharge of Ronon's particle magnum. A P90 lay discarded next to both men.

"I think your husband doesn't like my guns."

Hermione laughs a little and leans against the rail of the observation area. "He's picky, always has been. I think you'll be getting an armament upgrade Colonel."

John frowns and looks back towards the two men just as a violent burst of fire rips out. They had traded rifles and for the first time… ever. John could see Ronon grinning with a Tau'ri weapon in hand. The steady cadence of Potter's weapons fire had been replaced by the staccato rattle of automatic fire. The magazine clicks empty rapidly and Ronon shoves a replacement in with the smooth movements of a trained soldier. The alien empties the mag again in rapid pace before grinning at the weapon and offering it back to Potter. They swap and with no further communication both turn to the two standing in the observation area and speak in stereo.

"I want one"

They disarm their respective weapons and start arguing good naturedly with lots of gestures and pointing at the targets. John looks back at the female Potter.

"An armament upgrade you say. The SGC isn't going to buy new weapons."

Hermione huffs "They won't have to. Harry will pay for the upgrade himself. Expect some lengthy discussions about ammunition and other such nonsense."

Taken aback John almost has to ask the British woman to repeat herself. "Excuse me, he'll pay for it?"

She looks at him like he's an idiot and he's annoyed that he finds it a little hot. "Don't worry about the expense Colonel Sheppard. Harry has extensive contacts in the British military and with US arms manufacturers. Besides which my husband is… Obscenely wealthy."

He raises an eyebrow "Obscenely?"

She grimaces "Yes, he's the last member of an ancient family of wizarding nobility. He's… he could purchase a country and fund its military from his personal wealth. His kind of wealth is… unheard of, anywhere. It's insane."

He looks shrewdly at her "I bet that caused some arguments."

She gave a huff and swiped some hair out of her eyes "Understatement. He spends money like its… like it doesn't matter at all. Our first Yule together as partners, he gave me a set of jeweled barrettes that must have cost… thousands of pounds. I couldn't believe he'd just… throw away money like that."

Frowning a bit John turns back to the two men who had Potter's rifle in parts on a table, discussing them all. "He must have thought you were worth all of it."

She huffed again and turned back towards the two men. "Yes, well, he certainly acts like it. He's always loved with his entire being."

"I can believe that. How long have you known him?" John asked as a marine ran into the room carrying a pack John had seen Potter carrying the day before. The British soldier opened the pack and started pulling out more parts.

Hermione smiles indulgently down at the pair as Harry begins to assemble another rifle, explaining the process to Ronon as he does so. "Since we were children. Twelve for me, eleven for him. We met at school and we've hardly been apart since."

John chuckles. "No kidding." He paused, mulling over whether he should mention what was going through his head. He sighed, figuring there wasn't much point avoiding the topic.

"Your husband. He's built for war."

She met his sigh with one of her own and nodded sadly. "Yeah, he's been through about the worst of it. Done some of the worst of it too. Don't… don't treat him like your marines or your airmen Colonel Sheppard. He trained for years to defeat the Dark Lord who terrorized wizarding Britain for three generations. He went into our version of the military after that. Barely enough time to take a breather before the International Confederation of Wizards, that's like our version of the UN, whisked him away to Rome to be trained as a War Mage. I had time to follow him and get settled in but… our people sort of abandoned him by degrees."

John took a breath; he knew what that was like. He'd been in a pit in the middle east for a year before his people had finally stumbled across him. His CO had fought tooth and nail to get him rescued but he'd been declared KIA after four weeks. Abandonment was… viscerally familiar.

"Some of our friends filtered in over the years. Some filtered back out again. But through it all Harry got deeper and deeper into his training, and eventually went into the field. We discussed for… it felt like months, what it would be like for him out there, whether he should commit to it or if he should bail out. He's stubborn, and he has a sense of duty like no one I've ever met. So, all of our discussions eventually boiled down to how he'd stay in one piece."

John grinned, "I used to have those kind of discussions with my sister and, well my ex-wife."

Hermione laughed back at him under her breath. "I take it they didn't go as well as the discussions I had with Harry."

He chuckled, acknowledging her point. "Not even close. She stuck around for the first few years but, well, eventually she couldn't handle it anymore. We married early; it was dumb."

Down in the firing ranges Ronon was fiddling with his brand-new battle rifle. John frowns. "You know we don't have ammo for those things on the city."

Hermione smiles wryly back at him. "Harry has… well a lot. We can shrink things down to tiny sizes or store them in dimensional spaces. So, he's got about." She paused and leaned over the railing. "Harry, how much ammo did you bring for that gun of yours?" He replied, distracted by explaining how to sight the weapon to his new friend. "Two cases."

John frowned; two cases of ammunition was about a thousand rounds. They'd already spent about a hundred on the firing range today and Potter burned through at least fifty every morning.

"He must be almost out of ammo already." He muttered

Hermione backed up from the rail as the two men moved back to the firing butts. "Like I said Colonel, we can shrink things. I'd say he's got a hundred thousand rounds or more stuffed in his bags."

John huffed in shock "I'm sorry, a hundred thousand rounds?"

She turned to him with that same expression that expressed her sincere annoyance at his inability to keep up. He was familiar with it from Rodney. "Yes Colonel. At least. Don't worry about his ammunition expenditure. He wouldn't be careless or foolish with his weapon. I believe you'll find him to be a diligent, conscientious and dutiful officer who will be capable of assisting you in commanding your men in this galaxy to the best of their ability."

There really was nothing much to say to that so John turned back to the two men who were now matching cadence. Though Ronon was still paying attention to Potter who was keeping up a constant stream of words through their firing pattern, he doubted anyone but the two of them could hear what they were saying though.

"I believe you. I've not seen Ronon give that much attention to _anyone_. He's been alone for years and he has trouble trusting anyone but… He trusts your husband, already."

The woman next to him just smiles enigmatically. "He has that effect." After a moment of silence, she gains a businesslike expression. "Right, walk me through base protocols you have between your military assets and civilians. We haven't had a chance to catch up at all this week and I need to extract some information from you."

-:-

In her office facing the stargate Elizabeth Weir put down the tablet pc she'd been reading from and settled shaking hands in her lap. With John and Ronon she thought she'd dealt with the highest level of military she'd have to on the base, but Potter's record was an entire new level of violence she hadn't quite been ready for. She'd been putting off reading the file, but she regretted that now. There wasn't a single day that would go by when she would forget that Harry Potter was a fixer who had been sent to Pegasus to _fix_ the Wraith. Diplomacy and courtesy were foreign to this man.

There would only be war.


	2. Experimentation

AN: 'Insert Huffy Disclaimer Here'

Chapter two: Experimentation.

Harry swatted another alien mosquito with an annoyed grimace and, out of frustration, put up an insect repelling ward on the whole team. Rodney looked stuck between amused, relieved and jealous. Which was so funny Hermione laughed briefly before biting her lip to keep from continuing. Rodney huffed and brushed past a branch that was in his way.

"It's so utterly unfair that you can do that. I've wanted to be able to make bugs flee from me for _decades_."

Harry laughs and grins. "Would you believe we never learned that at school? I was utterly unprepared for the Mediterranean when we went to Rome, insects _everywhere._ Hermione found the spell about ten minutes after we landed out of self-defense from the blighters."

The scientist bites his lip and Harry bites back the urge to sigh out of frustration. That crush McKay had on Hermione had to die, fast. Perhaps sensing Harry's consternation Teyla pipes up in her calm and steady voice. "How are you two settling into the city?"

"Well the view is great" Hermione responds tartly and then sighs a bit. "It's lovely really, truly beautiful and… It's almost like she had been missing me, and I her, my entire life without knowing it."

John nods in agreement where he's trudging through the brush on Hermione's other side. "I know what you mean, it was like coming home getting onto the city for the first time. I had to really fight myself not to turn everything on immediately and go romping around looking for _her_."

Harry chuckles "Yeah it was a pretty heady experience, I've never quite felt anything like the feeling of… yeah, Home."

Teyla frowns at them with some consternation. "The city is alive?"

John makes a so-so gesture with the hand not on his weapon. "Not really, it's hard to explain." He shares a look with Harry who shrugs. Hermione pipes up from between them. "There's something alive about the way the city suits our needs. I've examined data about the Ancients, it's likely they needed a slight ammonia content in their air and water. But it's completely absent from the city and, based on the fact that none of you needed hospitalizing after reaching the city from ammonia poisoning, the city itself was… ready for you."

John raises an eyebrow at the short woman and mutters. "Well thank God for that."

She smiles winningly at him. "Indeed, you're all quite lucky not to have died outright really. I don't know who organized the provisions for the expedition, but they were… well not apt. Regardless, the city does match itself to the expedition in some incredible ways. It suggests a level of intuitive, or even predictive, intelligence beyond anything I've seen outside of some remarkable magical artifacts."

Teyla and Ronon both looked distinctly uncomfortable with that thought, John appeared pensive. Rodney seemed stuck somewhere between eager and horrified. Harry could just imagine the kinds of scenarios a man like Rodney would conjure up regarding AI.

Hermione flicked her coiffed hair with an adorable flounce and raised an eyebrow at the military commander of the expedition. "You've had the most interaction with the city via the Chair, what does she tell you when you're sitting in it John?"

He frowns back at her, more thoughtful than annoyed, and replies with careful words. "It's not so much a direct dialogue as a gentle prod towards information I need. Displays and readouts vital to a task at hand that I didn't know to ask for spring to life at the city's prompting. The jumpers do it too when I'm in atmosphere. But if I leave the planet via space or the gate that advantage vanishes. It is like being plugged into the universe's biggest supercomputer though. I know I can handle information quicker there."

Rodney stops and glares at John with some heat. "You mean to say I could have been in the chair the whole time learning at a faster rate?" John pats him on the back and prods him forward, ignoring the glare with the experience of long practice. "No, I'm not saying that at all. Your impression of the gene from the therapy isn't enough to get genuine connection with her like any of the natural gene carriers do. She does her best to help you where she can but it wouldn't be the same Rodney."

The scientist's lips thin to a barely visible line, fury darkening his cheeks before it bleeds away back to his usual pallor. "You're right. Which is… what one for a million? Not bad Sheppard."

John flicks the man the bird making both Ronon and Harry break out in laughter. Teyla and Hermione share an exasperated smile.

-:-

They'd found a decent clearing to set up a testing range on the uninhabited forest world. Rodney waves a hand downrange and glared lightly at Harry.

"Now, try not to blow up the entire forest Lieutenant. But seriously, show me some magic."

Harry grins at the scientist before flicking his wand into his hand.

"This is both a tool and a weapon. I can use it for utility and combat so don't assume I've seen a threat if I draw it. I'll be vocal about that. That said I'll rarely draw it at all for many tasks because." He flicks one hand a tree stump that promptly explodes sending wooden splinters everywhere. Those heading towards the team stop in midair and fall to the ground. "I can perform some of my magic wandless, and it's easier to disguise what I'm doing if there isn't a bit of wood people can look at and point to as being the weird thing in the room."

John coughs and Harry looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

"If that thing breaks are you going to lose your ability to do more complicated magic?"

Harry nods. "Yes, if, somehow, this were to break I'd not have the ability to cast high magical arts. However, it's almost impossible to break a wand. Their durability is tied to my magic. So, my magic would have to be suppressed or removed entirely for my wand to be in danger of damage. There aren't any magic users in this galaxy that could do that to me as far as I know. As such, it's functionally impossible for that to happen anymore."

The older man looks relived as Harry continues.

"I have a vast suite of offensive spells for handling other magic users. But in combat with mundanes, people without magic, I tend to stick to what's easy." He flicks his wand three times at another tree. The first flick detonates a branch, the second cuts off the stump of what was left of it. The third drills a hole through the trunk of the foot-thick tree, showing daylight on the other side.

"Slicing, blasting and piercing hexes. Magically inexpensive, efficient and powerful. I can cast these all day without tiring myself out." He swishes his wand and a pale shield of energy springs up in front of him. "Right, don't be alarmed now. Hermione?"

Without any kind of hesitation, she pulls out a 9mm handgun and fires three shots directly at her husband. The team starts a bit, but the bullets stop in midair, mushrooming against the shield and fall to the ground.

"In our experience the 'hardness' of a protego shield, that's what I just used, is equivalent to AR500 steel. It will block any small arms fire, anything up to a 50BMG and doesn't degrade over time. I have to feed the spell constantly with energy, but I don't have to give it additional energy based on the power of the incoming attack. We believe based on the data your people have already gathered about Wraith and Genii weapons that it won't have any trouble stopping projectiles from infantry attackers. I have a more powerful shield that will probably deflect attacks from a dart. But I doubt I could resist a hive ship."

Ronon grunts in amusement. "Well at least you're not invulnerable."

Harry nods "Far from it. My physiology is functionally identical to yours, though I do enjoy some resistances to blunt trauma. I do suffer from some illnesses you do not and am mostly immune to illnesses like the common cold. Hermione is much the same." He grins at her briefly before continuing. "Okay, right, transport. I can teleport short distances by line of sight. Or to anywhere I can visualize in my head, I can make it quiet, or as loud as overhead thunder. As such…" He apparates with a whisper of sound across the field making the entire team start from the shock of it.

"As you can see it can be quite disorienting in combat. I doubt there are any enemies in this galaxy that wouldn't be completely taken off guard by such a tactic."

Teyla nods emphatically. "Yes, this will be quite confusing for the Wraith and the Genii. The Genii consider themselves underdogs, but they are arrogant and confident in their own ability. The Wraith could not conceive of an enemy that can perform such actions. They will attempt to explain it away, especially if they take a loss against your tactics."

Hermione hums thoughtfully. "Could we get away with using our abilities openly against the Wraith?"

Ronon shakes his head bitterly. "They would catch on eventually, and then hunt you down for sport. The Wraith have destroyed entire worlds for the hint of them having some sort of advantage. The potential for humans with advanced powers would send them into a frenzy."

Huffing in what Harry probably figures is fury Hermione mutters with a frown; "You're going to kill all of those assholes extra hard." She blushes and crosses her arms as the entire group promptly bursts into laughter, even Teyla who looks more shocked than amused.

"But seriously, if I can't handle this on my own, I'll be calling for backup." Harry says directly to John. "I need you to believe that I take my task here extremely seriously Sheppard. I won't let the Wraith get to Earth."

John nods with a shaky motion and opens his mouth to speak when a sharp crack rings out and he grunts in pain, crimson blossoming up over his chest. John's entire team yells some variant of his name while scrambling for position, Harry spins on the spot, barking orders as he does.

"Hermione stabilize him right fucking now! Ronon, on my six, Teyla, keep McKay in one piece."

It's a testament to how close the bond already was between the two soldiers that Ronon darts in behind Harry as he pelts towards the tree line. More gunshots ring out from the tree line but the bullets mushroom against an invisible forcefield that seems to be preceding Harry as he dashes forwards. Teyla brings her weapon to bear just in time to see the two men vanish into the trees. She puts one hand out behind her to stop Rodney running forwards as she can already sense him bustling to do. "It must be the Genii Rodney, go help Doctor Potter, I will keep watch."

"Oh, it's no worry." Dr Potter's voice behind her sounded calm and collected. "You'll be right as rain in a moment Colonel. Do stay calm." She heard John huff and groan, the sound of it spoke eloquently to the pain he must be in. "Terribly sorry about that, just a moment."

Teyla twisted around at the sound of another groan from her commander and her eyes widened in shock at the sight of a bullet floating through the air away from Hermione's wand. She'd clearly just extracted the bloodied projectile from John's chest.

"I'm going to have to make this seamless Colonel, you can talk to Carson about it later and have him check it for you. But we can't let anyone on the base know we were ambushed. Harry will interrogate their commander when he catches them and kill whoever it was that was foolish enough to order you shot. There can't be any evidence that there was a fight here. We have to protect our abilities from prying eyes. Besides, there's every chance you have a spy."

Teyla looked on in shock as the woman rambles while her _wand_ drifts back and forth over John's chest. Blood on his chest flows back into his body. The wound closes, even his vest and shirt stitch themselves back together looking none the worse for wear. Sheppard groans again and rests his head back against the ground. "That itches something fierce." He bitches with some humor. The British woman grins back at him; "Buck up, you've just had your muscles woven back together, of course it itches. Be thankful I didn't need to potion you, the potion for broken bones tastes like rancid yak shite."

-:-

In the darkness of the forest Ladon Radim sprints for his life. "Get the gate open to Veta Base _right now! Call reinforcements!_" He speaks frantically into his radio only for it to spit static back at him. He'd never seen anyone do the things the new Atlantean did but whatever it was they needed to get to safety before the man who wielded the power of the Ancestors caught up to them. The idiot who shot Sheppard was already dead, head separated from his body and his lifeblood pumping into the dirt.

They'd been setting up an observation post on the planet when the gate had activated. The ten men he had with him had dove into cover from what they assumed to be a wraith attack. When Sheppard, his team and two unknowns had walked through the gate Ladon had seen it as an unparalleled opportunity to spy on the Atlanteans who had been claiming their city was destroyed.

They'd watched in shocked silence as one of the newcomers demonstrated power they'd never seen before, and then some over excitable conscript had _shot_ John Sheppard. Something told him their relationship with the Atlanteans was going to be severely restricted from now on.

If they survived.

The bear of a fighter, Ronon Dex, and the newcomer were _hunting_ them through the forest. A scream echoed from Ladon's left and the Genii officer scrambled away from the sound. He was utterly lost, turned around repeatedly by the deadly progress of the two killers through the woods. He burst into a clearing, panting hard and almost immediately saw the dreadlocked head of the Satedan Runner on the other side of the glade. He bit back a curse and froze, hoping beyond hope that the other man hadn't heard him. Just as he was about to turn and run, he felt his limbs go rigid and unresponsive. Try as he might, he couldn't move them at all. Even his face was frozen in whatever ridiculous expression he'd had when he saw the Satedan's back.

"Now where are you running off to hmm?" The voice that crept out of the forest behind him sounded like all the nightmares he'd ever had as a child. Calm, implacable, cold.

The image of the Satedan ahead of him bled away like smoke and Ladon choked on the shock of it.

"Don't worry too much about that. It'll just make your head hurt."

The voice now was sibilant and soft. Seductive almost and as though the man's voice had reached into his head and turned off the thought. He forgot all about the vanishing image of the Satedan soldier, his mind floated like he was submerged in a pool of water and abruptly he didn't have a worry in the world. There was a sensation of pressure as something thin and hard pressed against his temple.

"Tell me Ladon. Why were you here." The voice came from just behind his ear and was conversational, no real force or viciousness to it but it still had that soft undertone that seemed to reverberate through his brain. Without really thinking about it. Ladon began to talk.

-:-

Harry dumps the unconscious Ladon down in the clearing where John was leaned up against a tree recovering from his near-death experience. Hermione frowns as she pokes the previously wounded man with her wand. "You don't react the same way a squib or muggle would to healing spells, more like a wizard but not… quite. It's bizarre. If it wouldn't be an imposition, I'd like to experiment with it later in a controlled environment. If you're going to react badly to a spell in the future, I'd rather know about it ahead of time than in a serious situation."

John nods tiredly and gestures at Ladon's prone form. "Whatever you like doc, Potter, what's the deal with the Genii. They aren't usually so overtly aggressive with us." Rodney huffs and Teyla shoots John a raised eyebrow. "I'm certain you aren't referring to the same lack of aggressiveness they showed when they invaded the city."

Rolling his eyes a bit, John waves a hand at Potter to get on with it as Ronon stomps into the clearing, a brace of weapons slung over his shoulder. Harry eyes the larger man with amusement before clearing his throat.

"Right, first, they didn't mean to shoot you. From what this chap here said when I juiced him up a bit, a rookie with a poorly trained trigger finger took a shot at you out of sheer excitement. It was terrible luck it hit you at all. They were here setting up an observation post and decided to spy on us when we came through the gate. I think the safest thing to do here is to make it look like the wraith abducted all but this guy and have him report back as such, having evaded capture. Now, I haven't actually seen a wraith attack myself, so I'll need to view memories of the event to form a proper memory to implant in his mind."

Rodney looks a little flabbergasted, all of them do really. Hermione sighs at him pointedly before explaining in more detail.

"Harry was trained extensively to handle memory modification to help preserve our secrecy on Earth. Not all situations he went into could be handled quietly, so he was trained to make magical events disappear in people's minds. He can do the same here. We hide the bodies of the dead Genii with magic, modify this man's memories and send him back through the Stargate under the impression that his men were abducted in a wraith attack."

Ronon nods, his shaggy locks bouncing slightly. "I like it, we can't really let it be known you two are anything other than… ordinary."

John looks thoughtful for a minute before nodding sharply. "Do it, how do you look at memories?"

Harry raises an eyebrow at Hermione when she starts to launch into another explanation. She blushes furiously and huffs before walking out of the circle of people muttering about stinginess. Harry draws his wand and leans forward, looking into John's eyes.

"Think hard about all the times you've seen wraith attacks; I'll copy the memories from your mind into mine." He looks up at John's team. "I'll do this with everyone to get a better idea of it. Not everyone perceives things the same way and I want to make sure none of you have misremembered details that would give the game away."

Turning back to John the other man can see Harry's face take on a focused expression. "Concentrate now, bring all the memories to the front of your mind. This won't hurt a bit."

-:-

"That hurt quite a lot!"

John, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon were all leaning against trees nursing headaches after Harry's rather thorough exploration of their memories. Rodney was bitching loudly about the experience. Grinning at all of them Harry touches his wand to Ladon's temple. The man's head seems threaded with silver for a second before the strange lines sink into his skull and the man gasps in his unconsciousness.

"Bet it gave him a worse headache. Right, he's going to wake up here in about an hour, thinking he ran from the attack and fell unconscious from a head wound. So…"

Without much ado Harry clouts the man on the side of the head with the stock of his gun and gestures to the clearing. "Do you mind cleaning this up love?"

Rodney and Teyla both look uncomfortable at the display of violence on an unarmed, unconscious man, and perhaps the power Harry had displayed, but the wizard didn't care to hold their hands about it. John got to his feet looking a little pale but otherwise fine. Harry flicks his wand at the man, an enervate washing over his chest with a red flush of energy that has him standing up straighter and the color returning to his cheeks. John huffs a bit in surprise before looking around.

"Did you clear up signs of fighting in the forest?"

Harry nods and waves in the vague direction of the trees. "Only our chap's footsteps will remain, every other part of our presence here will be erased by Hermione's spell. She's very talented with it. It'll cover the last ten hours of our activity so even DNA evidence we left in our rooms this morning, hairs and such, will vanish." John mouth drops a little in shock and Harry nods with a grin. "Yeah it's pretty great. She developed it for me for stealth work and to help us clean up after public scraps. No sense leaving the DNA of magical creatures laying around for just anyone to find."

Out of the corner of his eye Harry can see Rodney practically vibrating with questions but the man was in turns terrified of him and fascinated with him. So, Harry figured he only had an hour or two, at most, on that front. Hermione tucked into his side without fanfare as they moved back towards the Stargate.

"What kind of operational procedure do the Genii have? Are we likely to run into reinforcements at the gate from a missed check in?"

Ronon shakes his head a bit. "No, when they don't check in, the Genii will assume they were wiped out by the wraith and not send anyone else to get killed along with them. It plays well into your memory trick."

"I'd hoped that would be the case" Harry said by way of agreement.

A loud smack sounded from behind them and they all turned to see Rodney wiping at his neck. Apparently, the scientist's petrification only lasted until insects became involved because he immediately spoke up with a demanding voice.

"Insect repellant spell, right now Potter. I mean it."

Harry and Hermione shared a grin before both throwing one at him followed by a stinging hex. The yelp the man gave was incredibly satisfying and the exasperated look his wife gave him let Harry know exactly how she felt about Rodney's little crush. Harry jolted a bit from Ronon's friendly slap to the shoulder as he walks past.

"Come on then Potter. Night sets early on this planet."

-:-

They comes back through the gate like nothing serious had happened off world. John has a spring to his step and a healthy flush in his cheeks. Teyla and Ronon are as impassive as ever, though Teyla's lips are tugging at the corners of her mouth at John's latest attempt to introduce Earth humor into Ronon's life. Ronon just looked bemused.

Elizabeth isn't familiar enough with the Potters to know what their resting states are like, but they seem casual enough. Doctor Potter, Hermione, laughing openly at the expression on John's face, rather than his joke. The soldier, Harry, seems somewhere between resigned and amused.

Rodney though. Rodney looks like he's seen a ghost. His hands are shaking, and Elizabeth can see the billion questions he's holding back rush across his face like wildfire in the rapidly moving eyes and pinched lips. He's barely holding it together.

Something happened.

She walks down the steps of the gate room, greeting the group warmly as is her want. But before she can confront John about Rodney's state, he hooks a hand around her elbow and tugs her along with them. One eyebrow raised at him she follows without much protest. Out of the corner of his mouth as the rest of the team talks around them, she hears him mutter. "Not here."

He lets go of her elbow as they leave the room and head towards John's office. The implied instruction for her to follow without question rankles slightly but if the military arm of the leadership of the expedition is acting with such secrecy then it must be for a good reason. Her eyes lock with Rodney's and she cocks an eyebrow at him, and he shakily nods. Nothing world ending then. He whips out a tablet so fast it looks like magic and starts tapping away. _Magic,_ she nearly chokes on the mental thought.

They pile into the room, his team spreading out and arranging themselves on various bits of furniture. Doctor Potter tucks under her husband's arm where he's leaning against the window. Elizabeth looks around the room and takes in their demeanors, they're tense. More so than when they were outside the room. She opens her mouth to speak but the male Potter raises a hand and a heavy feeling falls over the room, like a woolen blanket pressed hard against her skin. She gasps and then lets out the breath as the sensation abruptly vanishes. From the discomforted looks of the other Atlantis veterans she can only imagine they all felt it. Potter's voice is gruff as he speaks.

"We're safe from prying ears."

Understanding that it was a spell of secrecy or some other such bullshit she immediately snaps out her query.

"What the hell is going on here? John?"

He grimaces before answering. "We ran afoul of a Genii scouting party, led by Ladon. They were there for recon, it was bad luck. One of their over excited greenhorns shot me and Doctor Potter patched me up. The Lt. edited Ladon's memory and left him unconscious on the planet thinking his team had been culled by the wraith and he'd fallen while running and hit his head. We cleaned up after ourselves so the story should hold up."

Huffing in annoyance Elizabeth leans against the wall, arms crossed. "So, there was no diplomatic option? You couldn't have captured and interrogated them rather than killing them?"

John bristles a bit but before he can respond Ronon simply says; "No"

Before Elizabeth can figuratively explode with anger Potter steps in.

"It was a hostile fire environment. The colonel was down with a serious wound and I couldn't stop to take prisoners with two civilians in the field and only a single military asset to defend them. We couldn't hold our position and risk the Genii getting back through the gate with knowledge of my abilities. We had to _hunt_ them and eliminate the threat to our secrecy and the safety of the civilians and wounded."

She looks at the man sharply. "I know for a fact Ronon's weapon can stun. And although I'm new to well, actual magic. I'm certain you have the ability to perform a non-lethal takedown. You killed those men and there was no need for it."

Potter seems to be struggling not to raise his voice as he replies.

"The standing orders I'm understood to have are weapons free against combatants firing lethal weapons at civilians. If you want this expedition's civilian population to dwindle, then by all means I'll begin to moderate my actions. But until that policy changes my wife stays on the city."

She bristles and speaks without thinking.

"I think you'll find I handle the civilian assignments for the city Lt. Potter."

Immediately she regrets her words, realizing too late he baited her with his lack of respect for her position on the city. Abruptly she remembers who she's talking to as _Ronon_ of all people pushes up from where he's sitting and moves to stand in front of Potter. Speaking in low tones to him. The woman, Hermione, looks perfectly calm as she taps away at a tablet that very well may have arrived by literal magic. She risks a glance around the room and sees both Teyla and John looking at her with calculating expressions. Rodney just looks incredulous.

With a calm that Elizabeth didn't expect from the man Potter claps Ronon on the shoulder and gently pushes him in the direction of his seat as the wizard looks at her evenly.

"You should know Doctor Weir. That in no way am I or my wife under your command. You'll find that while I follow the military chain of command to preserve morale on the city and not undermine the Colonel's authority. Both my wife and I report directly to the IOA."

He pauses and she imagines a different man would have brushed a fleck of imaginary lint from his shoulder after that line. Potter however merely watches her with that same calm, even expression.

"Hermione and I are here to evaluate the Wraith and their threat to Earth. Your obstruction on that front is a direct obstruction of the IOA's goals in Pegasus."

He chuckles but there's no warmth in the sound, it's almost bitter.

"I would think a woman who got her position on this expedition because of her IOA contacts would be more cautious about _fucking_ with the direct stated aims of her own boss."

The colour flushes out of Elizabeth's cheeks and she opens her mouth to protest but is sharply cut off.

"No Doctor Weir. You need to understand something very clearly. You might think that you've built yourself a little fiefdom out here with a sympathetic military commander to police your civilians and move towards your goals. But I've been informed under no uncertain terms that you were given a very explicit set of instructions regarding our stay on this city and you are _impinging_ on those instructions with all the subtlety and regard as the proverbial bull. Tread carefully ma'am, the powers that be would replace you here in a heartbeat if they thought it served their ends. I know for a fact Jack O'Neil at the SGC would rather the Colonel head the expedition himself. He's proven himself an excellent and dedicated leader who would put his own life ahead of every single one of the civilians on this base. You've proved to me in ten sentences or less that you don't have any kind of respect for the risks the military assets on this base take to protect you and your civilians. You made it very clear to me that you have no understanding of the burdens they shoulder every time they eliminate a threat to a botanist or geologist out doing their jobs in the wider galaxy. It's profane for you to question the actions we take to protect you when your very life depends on them."

Elizabeth stutters slightly, she hadn't been dressed down like this in a long time.

"You've been warned Doctor Weir, repeatedly, about the threat of the Genii. I have it on good authority that you would prefer to trade with them given half the chance, despite their repeated and _lethal_ aggression towards your expedition. At what point do you understand that they are a race of fanatics who want nothing more than the city they think you're squatting on? They don't care about what you have to trade, only what they can take from your corpse as spoils of war."

He's breathing hard but his face is still reasonably pale. She isn't sure if he goes pale when he's angry or if the lack of colour is an expression of hidden calm.

"They fired on the commanding officer of this base, nearly killed him. And you still want to _trade with them_."

John raises a hand and stands up, a hard expression on his face.

"That's enough Lieutenant."

Potter huffs a bit and leans back against the window his wife making a little sound of annoyance as her resting post shifts while she types on the tablet. John turns back to Elizabeth with a growing frown that mars his handsome features like a thundercloud.

"His disrespectful language aside. He's not wrong. I've held my tongue on the matter because I was under the impression that O'Neil hand-picked you for this position. That your goals lined up in the long run with ours. What do you want Elizabeth?"

Realizing abruptly that she's lost any semblance of ground to stand on Elizabeth turns to leave only for the door to fail to respond to her commands. She turns to John with a furious expression on her face.

"Let me out."

"No"

He returns evenly with his arms crossed over his chest. For the first time in the discussion Rodney looks utterly attentive, but not to John, to _her_. John's voice is cold and moving rapidly towards icy as he continues.

"If your mission objectives are divergent from mine then I deserve to know Elizabeth. Why are you here? What do you want?"

Elizabeth huffs at the man, utterly furious with the situation and her own loss of control.

"You don't have the clearance to know that Colonel."

John scoffs at her and she fights the urge to wince at the expression on his face.

"Lieutenant, wouldn't you say that a junior officer in a command structure must declare any clearance levels to their superior officer and the superior officer would be given acting clearance to handle mission particulars related to the clearance level of said junior officer?"

Potter nods, that same infuriatingly calm expression on his face.

"Sir yes sir."

John continues, a note of spiteful triumph in his tone.

"Would it be accurate Lieutenant, to say that you've disclosed your clearance level to me and that, as a result of this disclosure, I've been elevated over the course of your stay on this city, to the clearance level of top secret for the case of bearing knowledge about the magical world?"

"Yes sir, that's accurate."

"And in that case Lieutenant would it be accurate to say that my clearance level is now high enough to know whatever bullshit piece of information Doctor Weir is holding over our heads?"

"Yes sir, as far as NATO and IOA regulations are concerned you're privy to the highest levels of information due to my posting in your military installation."

John smiles beatifically and Elizabeth realizes rather suddenly that she'd fallen for his pretty boy look like most of their enemies.

"Right then. Doctor Weir, I believe you owe us an explanation."

Huffing in utter fury Elizabeth drops into a seat and glares at the man.

"I liked you better when you pretended to be an idiot."

John scoffs.

"Please, no son of Patrick Sheppard would ever be raised to be an idiot. It's frankly incredible you haven't figured out who I am yet."

Her glare shifts to an outright scowl.

"Yes, well not all of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouths."

She sighs a bit and settles back into the chair.

"Right, my express orders from the IOA are to return the weapons platform known as Atlantis to Earth by any means possible and recruit a gene carrier to defend Earth against the Ori using the weapons platform known as Atlantis to action such defense. As a secondary goal I'm to identify if gene therapy can be utilized to enable the ascension of top-level government officials should the relocation of Atlantis be considered untenable."

She smiles smugly at John's shocked expression and then smiles wider as his expression becomes thunderous. He moves to stand, and she gestures back at the chair he's sitting in.

"None of that Colonel. As your XO pointed out I'm here because of the IOA. As long as I play by their rules regarding the Potters, I'm still the leader of this expedition and they'd throw you back to Earth in chains in an instant if you did something to jeopardize their mission objectives. Now, let me out of this room."

He looks furious but she can tell she has him trapped as the door slides open with a hiss. Before she can stand to leave, however. Doctor Potter leans forward out of her husband's loose hold and fixes her with an incredulous look.

"I'm sorry, did you say those feckless idiots want to _ascend?_ Harry, you're hearing this right? How do I avoid getting that stupid when I'm older?"

The man in question shrugs and nods at her tablet.

"Keep reading love, the popcorn show is over."

She huffs and goes back to her tablet with a playful scowl at her husband. Elizabeth closes her mouth from where it hung open after her own words and glances at the man who looks amused. His voice is tinged with it as well.

"Run along Elizabeth. You're really of no consequence to this discussion anymore."

She huffs and leaves the room, as she does, she can feel the heavy blanket of magic flow over her body again and after turning around to check, she can tell not even the faintest sound is leaving the room. They're already talking as the door closes behind her, but she can't hear a thing. Frowning at the utter bullshit that is magic she starts the journey back to her office realizing belatedly that she was going to have to find a new gene carrier who could sit in the chair and run the city as a defense platform. She very much doubted John would be amenable to her goals now.

Decisions, decisions.

-:-

In the room behind Doctor Weir as she leaves it Rodney lets out a bemused snort.

"Did she just… forget the rest of us were there? I know _I _don't have clearance to know that shite."

Harry grins at them roguishly.

"Maybe not on her own, maybe I gave her some help focusing on a couple of important people."

Absently his wife swats him on the shoulder.

"Don't use mind tricks on muggles love, it's rude."

He grins down at her.

"Yes dear."

Rodney looks almost constipated at the effort it's taking not to demand all the information he can about the process. As John Ronon and Teyla seem uninterested in jumping into the conversation he eventually shifts his attention back to his tablet. Hermione's exasperated tone is obvious as she speaks into the silence.

"Oh, go on then, ask your questions, you get six! No more!"

"How do you teleport? How do you _alter people's memories_? How do you manipulate energy with wood? How do you do…. Any of the things your ridiculous people do? It's baffling!"

Hermione smirks at his instantaneous verbal outburst. She sounds deeply amused.

"That was only five."

His voice is almost snooty as he responds. Some of his usual snark returning.

"I'm saving the last one for later in case it becomes important. I don't know how stingy you are with answers but judging by the literal week of waiting I've had I think I need to be conservative."

Hermione quirks an eyebrow at him but raises her hand, ticking off fingers as she answers.

"We teleport by creating a microscopic wormhole between our current location and the location we're travelling to. It's quite like the Stargate really, just on a smaller scale. The bang that occurs is from displaced air and it's called _Apparition._ We squeeze ourselves through that wormhole and it's really rather uncomfortable. We alter people's memories by first sifting through their mind with a spell called _Legilimency_ which allows us to do just that. It requires a great deal of skill and training. Frankly I find the whole experience of using the spell sickening, so I never progressed with it. But my husband is extremely talented with all the mind arts and has few qualms with fucking with people's heads. Both literally and figuratively."

She flicks her hand at a mug on John's desk, floating it to her hand. "Powerful mages don't actually need a wand to cast magic, the magic comes from us. Wands hold the core of a powerful magical creature and allow us to focus our magic much more easily. Like running electricity through a wire to a light, instead of arcing it at it. We can perform magic at all because of two things, a gene that we're born with, much like red hair or blue eyes, but also the express permission of the Lord of Magic. Our souls live multiple lifetimes you see, yours too. If in this lifetime I do something to raise His ire then I'll not have the privilege of being a mage in the next life. In our society we call people who've been born from magical families but cannot cast magic _squibs_ and they're quite shameful. It was a practice not so long ago for magical families to cast out squibs into the muggle, non-magical, world. Families that bear squibs are considered to have offended the lord of magic in some way or another and that is almost a criminal offence in the wizarding world."

Rodney looks a little baffled, but she can see the light of academic curiosity in his eyes. He opens his mouth with what looks like a million retorts, but Hermione holds up one to interrupt him. "Do not think to tell me that the Lord of Magic doesn't exist. Suffice it to say my husband has _met_ him and personally blessed his endeavors. He treats all beings as sacred so have no worry that you're outside his sight. The leading opinion on muggleborns, those of us born to non-magical folk. Is that the Lord of Magic sees the souls of Muggles who please him, and he gifts them with magic in the next life. Live a good life Rodney McKay, maybe you can manipulate teacups too."

-:-

"She's infuriating"

Rodney was currently storming about his lab yelling at the ceiling. Radek Zelenka was watching him from a chair with an amused expression.

"You got over your crush quickly Rodney. Good."

The larger man splutters a bit before rounding on his colleague.

"I did not have a crush on Hermione Potter."

The Czech scientist scoffs

"Of course you did, it's understandable; she's lovely and enthusiastic, beautiful and kind. I've not had the chance to talk to her yet, but who would not have a crush on such a woman. But you got over it, that's the important part. The new Lieutenant does not strike me as the kind of man to share."

Slumping back into another chair Rodney nods in agreement

"Yes, that's obvious. But still! She sits there, explaining to me like I'm a child!"

Radek frowns at the man

"What could she possibly explain to you? She's a middle grade astro physicist with very few published papers and almost no academic presence as a scientist. You're… you."

Flushing white at his slip Rodney shakes his head.

"That's not what I meant; she was just being obnoxious."

Nearly leaping from his chair in excitement Radek wags a finger at Rodney.

"No, you meant exactly what you said! And you can't tell me. That means it's classified. What could be more classified than _this place_ I don't even know."

He begins to pace, and Rodney slumps a bit in defeat. Before he can open his mouth to speak however a cheerful voice sounds from the doorway.

"Oh, we haven't met. Rodney, do introduce us please."

Snapping his eyes up Rodney sees Hermione standing at the doorway with a smile on her face. Her eyes have a hard glint to them, which makes him think she knows exactly what he was about to admit.

He waves a hand at Radek

"Doctor Potter meet Doctor Radek Zelenka. Radek, meet Doctor Hermione Potter. Radek is an extremely skilled electrician and engineer with a bunch of degrees in Czech I can't pronounce. Dr Potter is an Astrophysicist from Rome, though she comes from Britain origionally."

Hermione walks forward and extends a hand with a warm smile on her face.

"Pleasure to meet you Dr Zelenka. I've heard excellent things about you on the city. Seems everyone I talk to has a nice thing to say about you and your tireless efforts to keep everyone safe. I hope to work with you soon."

Rodney has to choke back a laugh at the expression Radek's face, the older Czech man had gone bright red and was now flushing white. The handshake seemed to go right over his head with how the man's gaze had gone a little glassy. Rodney's eyes narrowed at Hermione as she smiled at the man.

"Do you think you could give us a minute Dr Zelenka? I need to have a confidential word with your colleague."

The other man nods dumbly and scuttles out of the room, so fast Rodney wasn't certain the man hadn't been hiding his own brand of East European magic. He rounds on the British woman with a frown.

"That is, not okay, using your, y, y…. Your _magic"_ he whispers the word violently "to fuck with my colleagues!" he pauses a moment "Or anyone for that matter, at all!" he huffs and looks eminently proud of himself. Like that scolding was an imperative from God.

The woman laughs and Rodney, just for a moment, wants to strangle her.

"Oh, I don't need magic to make shy, sweet scientists stutter and run away Rodney. Women have been doing that since the dawn of time. I was going to come down here and apologize for being so harsh with you earlier. But I overheard the tail end of your conversation with Dr Zelenka just now. Look, I know what it's like to have something you want to tell someone so badly that you can't imagine keeping your mouth shut about it. But you have to. We were given clearance to tell your team and Weir about magic because you're all mission essential. But Radek never needs to know, at least not at the moment. We won't make you sign an NDA, because enforcing it would mean taking you to court. But if you breach the trust we've put in you we'll wipe your mind back to kindergarten, and anyone you've talked to about it, and dump you in an asylum in Rome with the other dozen or so people in your situation who couldn't keep your mouths shut."

Her voice until now had been relatively light and airy but it firms up into a hard tone now.

"But you'll get over the silly boyish feelings you've developed. My husband doesn't need to be worrying about you watching his back. He has to trust you out here Rodney, the entire Human race may literally depend on it."

She turned without another look and left the room. He sat down at his desk and moved a shaky hand to his coffee mug. She wasn't wrong, the new XO did need to be able to trust Rodney at his back or they'd probably just leave him memory wiped like an extra from The Men in Black. He really needed to get a handle on this whole thing. He'd dealt with, honestly, shadier shite in the SGC than literal magic. The Baal clones were up there with things that gave him nightmares on the regular.

He huffed and drained his mug. It was always the pretty ones that got him in trouble.

-:-

"Sir, are you certain about folding Lt Potter into AR1? It'd be good for morale if we had an officer on the city while you were on away missions."

Sheppard eyes Evan Lorne with barely concealed frustration. The man was fresh to the city and Sheppard didn't have enough knowledge of the man yet. Not enough to trust his advice out of hand. Lorne would be acting as third in command on the base after himself and Potter. He knew that, he knew that given half a chance Lorne, and probably Potter, would prefer he stayed on base. He just wasn't built for pencil pushing, and nothing he'd seen about Potter suggested anything different. Lorne shrugged a bit before dropping the last of the transcribed reports on the desk with a huff.

"You'd have never thought that I'd miss a printer. But there you go. Last thing they would have figured to bring through the gate I guess."

John chortled and sat back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. "Look, I know you'd rather a senior officer stayed on base. So, would everyone else, me included, but Potter's new and neither my team nor the rest of you know him yet. He's ex SAS field operations and he has no admin experience. It'd be worse than useless to leave him on base to wrangle the privates. Ideally, I guess I'll end up sitting the desk, but I hate it."

Lorne frowns a bit "Permission to speak freely sir?"

"Go ahead, no sense hiding it if you've got something to say to me. And sit down for crissakes"

Evan grins wryly before sitting stiffly in the chair opposite John before relaxing a bit at the glare from his superior.

"The men respect Potter enough to follow his orders. Most of his file is black like a wraith's heart but the stuff the geeks spread around… it's impressive. I think we'd all understand if you wanted to keep running field ops and leave Potter behind, but I think the best thing you could do for him and the base would be to give him his own team."

John's glare softens to a frown.

"That still doesn't solve the admin problem. If we're both off world for days at a time, there's a hole in the roster. Or, if I end up staying here, that leaves a hole in AR1."

Evan winces a bit before responding. "Sir, I've got some experience with admin and logistics. At least until the two of you get settled in, I can handle the slack."

Eyeing him warily John asks with a dry tone; "Why exactly would you want to be saddled here at the city if you've tripped all the way out here in the first place?"

There was a vague hint of asperity in the younger man's tone as Lorne replied that John could easily brush off as frustration. "We've all been part of the chair force some time or other. It happens. If it lets you and the mustang get organized so we don't have a dick measuring contest when the shit hits the fan, I'm fine with it. Let me get settled in the city regardless before I need to go and defend it."

Leaning back in his chair John nods slowly. "All right. Sure. You sit around and babysit the rest of the rookies while I get shot at. Seems reasonable."

Lorne grins boyishly at him and John has to resist the urge to smack the kid upside the head

-:-

Hermione huffs and flops down on her side of the unreasonably comfortable bed she and Harry share on the city. Harry turns to look at her, eminently amused, from the desk where he's tapping away on a tablet. "If you're here as decoration I won't argue. You make the room much more attractive."

Hermione huffs and wiggles a bit so she can watch him as he regards her with that mixed look of amusement and affection she knows so well. "The stargate frustrates the hell out of me. Merlin's Pants, the whole city does. It raises so many questions about the differences between magic and technology I don't even know where to start. Never mind the fact that the SGC has been at war with honest to goodness aliens since we were still at Hogwarts. Didn't they ever think they could have used an entire group of ruddy _mages_ to help them fight a _planetary threat?_"

She could see that Harry could barely contain his mirth at her venting, but he somehow managed it and stood from his chair. He stretched for a moment and she admired his physique shamelessly while he slid onto the bed with her and gathered her into his arms. His nose nuzzled against her throat and a smile lit upon her lips at his thoughtless affection. She heard his voice as a rumble against her neck that sent shivers through her whole body.

"I know what you mean, I'm going to be having the mother of all arguments with Hammond when we get back to Earth, I'll get O'Neil to set it up for me. He seems to type to be amused by uppity junior officers getting fresh with a superior."

She giggled into his hair at the thought, it was exactly the kind of thing she imagined Jack O'Neil would be terribly amused by. They'd been briefed by him before shipping out to Pegasus and she'd reflected that he and Harry shared a startling number of similarities. More personality than appearance she had to admit, but they were there regardless.

"Probably not a good idea to get your boss in trouble love."

She could feel his lips curl against her skin as he grinned. "Oh he's not my boss, and I figure Chapman won't be too fussed about an American general getting annoyed at him."

She turned in his arms, curling one hand over his shoulder and smoothing the other over his bearded cheek. "What do you think about the wraith love? You've had time to go over the reports by now. I've been dying to pick your brains about it but I wanted to give you enough time to get your head around it."

He grimaces and she can see his vivid green eyes go a little cold with whatever vicious thoughts had popped into his head. "They're no better than Vampires, worse probably. Parasitic in a strategic rather than personal way on a level I've never seen. An entire race whose infrastructure is built around capture and detain warfare for the sake of feeding. I imagine it'd be what the vampires would be like if they'd evolved in a Norwegian or Mongolian culture. An insectoid hierarchy that includes drones, probably a kind of larval stage, officers, most likely adult males, and queens that appear more as command units than breeding entities. It's disturbing that we have no information on how they reproduce, but I have to assume eggs of some kind based on their social structure and numbers. Telepathy that emulates a highly specialized kind of Legilimency and physical strength and endurance that suggests enhanced bone and muscle structure." He pauses and she rubs his shoulder, silently encouraging him to continue.

"There's been no autopsy done, and I can somewhat understand the reluctance to have one, even dead, on the city. But we need to organize an off world examination to get some hard evidence. Regardless their key weaknesses seem to be as straight forward as any other magical creature. They don't appear to imbibe water or other foodstuffs, existing solely on the human population for food. Three angles of attack; starvation, poisoning or Force Operation Maneuvers. We can evacuate the galaxy and allow the wraith to starve with no food source and no real way to find a new one. We could isolate the targets they are likely to target and leave them with a magical poison that can ravage the hives. Or, and I figure this is most likely. We can execute light strikes over time that will magically force them to infight until the situation resolves itself. If we had more of the warships the SGC is constructing, we could afford to meet them on an even front, but the production times are too vast."

He falls silent and she can tell it's less about thoughtfulness and more about fatigue. He'd barely been sleeping the last week. Today's encounter with the Genii had made him slow down and reassess his situation and she could tell his endurance was wearing thin. Her lips press against his softly and she nudges him away. He cooperates and gets up only to jerk in surprise as his clothes vanish to a nearby chair, hers follow and she slips under the covers, beckoning him in. He smiles wanly at her and slides in, cupping one of her breasts with a large hand as he spoons her against him, head nestled into the crook of her neck. She smiles softly and reaches behind herself to tangle one hand loosely in his hair as he sighs contentedly. "Sleep love. We can continue this in the morning, I've missed having you with me the last week."

He murmurs sleepily against her neck and she shivers at the sensation of his breath tickling her skin. His other hand settles loosely on her hip and she covers it with one of her own, closing her eyes and wiling the lights to dim, gratified as they smoothly dim to near complete darkness. She's almost asleep as she feels the familiar weight of the city press against her mind and she murmurs in thanks. She barely registers Harry's mutter against the back of her neck.

"Goodnight Hermione, Goodnight Atlanta"

Even more dimly she registers the city's response in a pleasant female voice in the back of her mind.

"Nox tutam sum regis et regina."

-:-

AN: I've got a tradition of replying to reviews in the post script of my stories so I'll do that here. I won't be replying to guest reviews, regardless of their content. If you're brave enough to review you can put your name to it if you want recognition.

kent-jensen: Well good!

Pianomouse: Hopefully we complete this one in a timely manner. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself with it.

He-Who-Shall-Live: Political discussions aside, a good old wraith burning isn't off the table.

Kossboss: I often find characters are empty and meaningless without showing a bit of emotion. Sometimes that's warm fuzzies, sometimes it's rage and murder. Both sides of the pendulum

SSSra: Thanks! I hope this lives up to the hype

SGM84: Thank you! I am in fact continuing, perhaps COVID19 will give me the time to crank out a couple more of these

Shadowedsoul2: Thanks! Here it is, haha

Mkoepp63026: They do have a rather horrible habit of not knowing which bits of which canon to follow, which I often find leaves them a little dull. Hopefully this avoids that. Thank you for your generous praise!

Repenter66: o7, yessir

Sfu: I acknowledge the tenses thing in my opening authors note. I'm terrible at it, I'm well aware I'm terrible at it. But unless you want to start paying me for this, or for an editor to fix it, suck it up. I established a magical population that is far higher than in canon on purpose. They're isolationist and not particularly interested in wiping out muggles, so there's no real force comparison. Most magical enclaves are pocket dimensions in this AU, so space concerns aren't very real. Ultimately you need to remember this is an AU, and I rather hope you give more writers the respect of reading more than a single chapter of a work before condemning it for having plot holes. Regardless, thankyou for your review. I always appreciate reading a more attentive look at my work, despite the annoyances that can come with that

D001X: High praise! I hope I continue to live up to it

: Thankyou! Yeah I've always been more interested in wizarding societies that have a bit more depth and competency. Not always been able to write them convincingly though. Also, you probably know this already but, interesting fact, did you know that Caeser is actually pronounced Kaiser in the original latin? C is always a hard 'K' sound.

Joe Lawyer: I rather hope my expression of the lore from both shows is pleasing to read. Enjoy!

Mattcun: Here it is!

Delta8: Thanks! And you'll have to wait and see hehehe

Mzad: Thank you, hopefully this is worthy of the wait!

AnimeA55Kicker: Strongly frowned upon by the UN that. Shame really

Aceofspades2255: Well thanks haha, here you go!

The Big Bad Wolf: Thanks! I love the characterization personally. If you enjoy this work, I strongly suggest you check out Keira Marcos' works, I draw heavily from her writing style in this.

Starboy454: Thank you!

Kelorus: Lovely to hear, thank you!

AlphaMikeFoxtrot975: Might be a bit premature, give it a few chapters before you lump it with the best. At least let me develop a plot! But thank you regardless

High Chancellor Tirpitz: Thanks!

Lagenius: Well thanks, hopes fulfilled!

That's all for now folks. I'll see you next time!


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